Painting the Bottom

25-27 August 2008

Doug Hem, of “The Antifould Doctor” was quick off the mark to get some paint on the bottom of the boat, once the anti-foul had been soda-blasted off. After a sand the previous day to get rid of the last antifoul around the edge and under the cradle pads, Doug masked off the below waterline area, then gave the yacht five coats of white epoxy. Luckily for that time of year, the weather was kind, with sunny to overcast but not too cold for curing and not damp at all.

In the hands of an expert the spray gun just seemed too easy. The five coats were completed in just a day, including the masking off. This made the hull look fantastic, filling up small pinholes, and giving it a really good waterproof basis for the subsequent coats of black anti-foul.

It seemed a pity to have to cover the lovely glossy epoxy but it's a necessary evil so as to have a stroong key between the epoxy and antifoul.

After an overnight cure, three coats of black anti-foul was applied the next morning. The transition from the patchyb soda blasted surface, then to a smooth white hull and subsequently to black was an amazing transition to watch.

The difference from the original crusty, flaky, thick old anti-foul to a smooth Black finish underneath the hull made a big difference. After all, from my vantage point on the ground that was the biggest view that I had!

When the weather warms up, and it is suitable to paint the top sides, we will put a white stripe above the anti-foul and grey up to the toe-rail from there. Once the old faded blue top sides are gone, but will look a lot more presentable.


I must admit to a slight disappointment that I didn't know that a grey anti-foul was an option (I saw Doug spraying two hulls grey a month later) as it is not as severe, but it may end up looking better for longer in black after subsequent coats of sacrificial anti-foul. The grey topsides will make a big difference.

Now I need to remove the toe rails to make the sanding and painting easier and to secure the currently loose rails again. Interestingly, I hate green and Moira always said, when we were looking for a yacht to buy, that we'd end up with a green boat! Guess what colour is underneath the current blue - GREEN!

Soda Blasting Our Bottom

20 August 2008

There were many, many coats of old anti-foul paint that was dry, thick and flaky that needed to be removed. The normal method of using a scraper and hand-sander was going to be a huge job so, under advice of the painter, I arranged for soda blasting of the hull below the waterline to remove most of the old anti-foul.

This was a very interesting process to watch as first off they enclose the hull with plastic to constrain the over blow of powder. Basically, it is sand blasting but with baking-soda instead of sand particles, making it much more gentle but still a lot easier than sanding it off. It is horrendously noisy and I would not advise it to be done without informing you neighbours, if in your backyard. Even at the yacht club we moved to an isolated area where the noise would be less of a problem. It took the professionals about four and a half hours to do a 25 foot yacht hull after they had done all the preparation of the plastic bag cover.

They used about six large bags of soda for my 25’ hull and all the powder and anti-foul was dry and bundled up into the plastic and put in the rubbish bins. Due to our water restrictions, we were unable to hose down the boat and cradle but the result achieved in less than one day was impressive.

Although not cheap, it is comparable to what a professional boat builder or painter would charge you (in time charges) to sand off the anti-foul paint. If you can sand it yourself at your own pace, you’ll save a lot of money, but that was not an option for me. It is also a lot faster and the painter was very pleased with the small amount of preparation to do over the hull and around the waterline

I would certainly not call it a pleasant job but there is no method of removing anti-foul that it IS pleasant. It certainly takes paint off quickly to expose the original gel coat, as they gradually move down and around the hull. After the blasting all the painter required to do was to give them a thick sand and take off the areas covered by the cradle props.

It was very pleasing to know that there were no signs of blistering or osmosis in the hull below the waterline. The blasting would have shown any soft areas and did open up the normal pinholes of bubbles in gell-coat.

Next will be painting the hull below the waterline and eventually the topsides.

Front Furler Installed

15 August 2008

The “Plastimo” front foil furler drum system was installed on the forestay today. It looked good until subsequently when we tried to load the jib into the track it jammed halfway up due to the foil not being installed properly. (It was not until October that this was eventually rectified!)

New Mast Stepped At Last

30 May 2008

The boat builder needed to use their hydraulic crimping machine located at another boat yard where the crane would be used to step the mast. Crane lifting was created by two rings screwed onto two keel-bolts (most rearward and next forward, through a hole that was cut in the deck today, after the cabin top the garage was removed. The test lift was fine so all is ready.

20 June 2008

Finally the day has come for the mast to go into the hull. To this end the yacht finally re-entered the water to motor around to the other boat yard. The lifting system worked fine but needs to be improved for safety. The refurbished motor, after all this time since it was last worked on (only on the hardstand) refused to turn over so it was towed around and the diesel mechanic called – starter switch fault and after a bit of coaxing of the motor, that hadn't really run for over six months, the diesel was running again and left running while the mast was stepped and final swaging of the cables done using the 10 Ton hydraulic swager.

The mast was attached to the travel lift and raised for lowering into the hull. It finally settling into place just as hoped-for. The cast mast base sits astride an inverted “T” step bolted to the new strengthened base, that will allow increased or decreased mast rake and the collar fitted beautifully with the rope packing and silicon sealant in the small gap at the top, it looks quite neat. With the upper and lower side-stays, front and back stays all in place, it finally looks like a yacht again.

All my calculations and measurements that I provided to the mast builder were finally proven to be correct and the mast with its raked side-stays had just the right angle. We have set it up with originally about 300 mm rake on the mast, but we will have the sail it to find out where the rate should be set. At the moment we can just guess!

With the motors still running, the guys chuffed our yacht back around to Royals Yacht Club, where it was finally lifted back onto its cradle. This is a big relief as it was the first time that the motor had been used to actually push the boat since we had bought it. After a couple of hours running, the vibrations had decreased but with a single cylinder diesel it still vibrates quite considerably. However, all the black smoke had gone and the throttle responded as expected and there was no overheating.

Finally it looked and felt like something had been done on the boat, now that it had mast and I knew the motor was running. Still need to put a new key switch in, but I hey, it runs.

Mast Step, Deck Collar and P Bracket

May 2008

Finally some work is being done to prepare for the mast be stepped, with a new deck penetration with collar and strengthened mast foot created in the hull. The new keel stepped mast has been waiting patiently for months at the yacht club. The goose neck had to be relocated 200 mm lower as it was in the wrong place, and the wiring for the masthead light had to be replaced as the new wire turned out to be old stock with corrosion.

The mast foot had to be strengthened and increased in size and the collar through the deck needed reinforcing after enlargement.

With the help of a neighbour we had created a collar sleeve on a piece of mast off-cut that would provide a reasonably snug fit at the top, but allows plenty of space to pack some 16 mm polyester braid a couple of times around the mast to provide both spacing and padding in the penetration hole.

The boat builder glassed this collar into the deck after we had made the original sleeve. The old mast had a cross-section length of only about 100 mm but the new one is 135 mm, so the hole had to be increased considerably. You can see from the photograph that our Holland yacht has a mast location much further forward than the normal deck step position (that can be seen from the rectangular moulding in the deck). As such I don't know how much this will affect the sailing characteristics of the new rig with a mast that is now considerably lower and compared to normal Hollands, about 300 mm further forward. With the mast stepped 200 mm forward of the bulkhead and chainplates, this has allowed an 8º rake on the single spreader of the mast though, so it looks a much stronger, more modern set up.

The “P” bracket on the propeller shaft was loose and needed re-bedding in epoxy. Using a couple of syringes full of epoxy injected into a number of holes around the p bracket it is now nice and securely bedded again.

We have also had the toilet removed with the hull penetrations glassed over as we will be using a porta-potty instead and the less holes, the better.

This doesn't seem to be a lot of work but it has taken the boat builder months to do it - we just don't get why boat builders take so long to do anything! Their excuse is that they just can't get workers yet they charge enough to employ quality staff.

All Stop for a Broken Leg

April 2008

When I went to visit the boat builder on the 23rd of April, I was trying to go across a bluestone cobbled gutter area and my wheelchair stopped, I did not. After piling out of the wheelchair like a rag doll forwards onto concrete, I thought everything would be okay, but when I looked at my left leg it was considerably shorter than it should have been - one broken Femur was the result. It was a nasty break starting couple of inches above the knee and spiralling up for another four. Into an ambulance I went and off the hospital, four days later (not fun waiting for theatre time), I eventually had the leg operated on and a 12mm diameter stainless tube inserted from the knee to the hip. Good thing I couldn’t feel the leg pain, but it was an interesting operation that I stayed awake for. I'm strange that way, I like to stay awake for anything like that! The doctors found it strange to have a patient talking to them and watching, via video camera (in full colour) and x-ray display, of them drilling, slicing, hammering and screwing away at my leg. Having watched orthopaedic surgeons in action, I wouldn't like them to try and do any cabinet making on the boat or around the home! They may be great surgeons but their tool skills need some work - drill twice, measure after!

Far from stirring the boat builder into action, everything stopped on the boat and no more work was done until June. The boat builders are very frustrating in that they promise everything, and don't complete very much! There always seems to be another job that supersedes my job even though they're getting paid promptly and in full.

New Mast Picked Up

19 March 2008

Well, I picked up the new mast finally from the builder, Bob Keeley, who is a lovely old bloke - one of those rare old 'masters' who are still working at what they love doing in their 70s.

The keel stepped, masthead rig mast is made of KO10 profile of 100mm wide x 133mm deep, 2.6kg/m so is no light weight profile and will be very stiff. This is the profile that Bob Keeley always supplied the original Holland 25 builder, Doug Sharpin, for masthead rigs back in the late 70s and was his second last extrusion. However, even Bob didn't have an original mast plan for a Holland 25 so I had to start from scratch measuring the yacht and existing sails. My sails were from a fractional racing rig so I decided, to create better stability, to shorten the luff and leech of the main to lower the centre of drive of the main and remove 2.5 square metres from the main's area. I also lowered the boom closer to the deck so more leech than luff was taken out of the main giving a boom that should raise up at the rear for headroom. I know this is not optimal but studying some force maps of mains, I've seen low pressure areas at the lower rear corner indicating less drive from that area. We'll see how it goes eventually.

Driving a trailer with 10 metres of mast (I'm glad it wasn't much longer) across the city was an experience and raised quite a few strange looks at a big long black stick on a white trailer behind a black SAAB Aero, with a wheelchair on the roof! There was not much clearance between the mast and my wheelchair, so I had to beware of dips as well as turning corners. Anyway, I made the trip of 30kms across Melbourne without problems, dropped off the mast at the yacht club then returned the trailer to the mast builder.